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HUFFAM Family History

This page is dedicated to the pioneers Timothy HUFFAM and his sons Timotheos Blake, Frederick Walter, Richard and Gerard Scudamore. These five men came to New Zealand on April 30 1869, arriving on the same day as the Duke of Edinburgh, on the ship "Galatea".

Timothy HUFFAM aged about 50, around 1860, prior to leaving England for New Zealand.

In the words of Gerard, "There was so much excitement on shore because of the Duke’s visit that we were overlooked, and it was a few days before we could land, because of the jollifications. Eventually. the Lady Barkly towed us in."

The journey out wasn't uneventful either, as their barque, The Fanny, rammed a brig before even leaving England. They boarded the barque one bleak, December afternoon, in the Thames, and tugs began to take her out to the open sea. Daylight had not long come the next day when the Fanny, still in tow of the tugs, charged into another vessel, a brig, that was coming up the river. Her bow hit the other amidships, and the latter must have been in a very rotten state for she sank in a few minutes, though not before all hands had time to get clear.

"How we came to run into her, I can’t imagine," said Mr. Gerard Huffam, recalling the incident. "The skipper knew he would be detained a long time if he stopped, so he decided to go on. The tugs cast off and the pilot, whose name was Pidgeon, left us, and we started out into the channel. We had broken our bowsprit, but we got a new stick from shore and fitted it in. A case of grog was pitched overboard."

One wonders if the captain of the Fanny was a fault... "The skipper was a very drunken man and he was in such a state that the mate had charge of the barque for the first two or three weeks." And once they reached Nelson, "the captain met an old friend and they started a celebration that lasted till the Fanny left for China, and on the voyage the captain died in the D.T.’s."

From Nelson, the five bachelors went to live at Bark Bay. They stayed there 16 years, firstly cutting firewood from the bush behind them, then fishing, and finally making small boats - a trade that two of the boys had been trained in while living in Cowes, Isle of Wight.

Bark Bay - pictured towards the end of the 19th century.

Eventually the family split up, Blake marrying Jane JACOBSEN, of Nelson, Richard marrying Sophie PERRIN and going to live in Wellington and Frederick marrying Mary Ann GIBBS. Gerard never married. Timothy was eventually laid to rest in the Wakapuaka Cemetery in Nelson, on 14 July 1893. A headstone was placed and a dedication of the same was made in April 1999 at a family reunion.